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| 86Box | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Screenshot of 86Box | |
| Developer | Miran Grča (including contributors) |
| Initial release | 26 June 2016; 9 years ago (2016-06-26) |
| Stable release | 5.3 / 21 December 2025; 60 days ago (2025-12-21) |
| Written in | C,C++ |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows,Linux,macOS |
| Type | Virtual machine,emulator |
| License | GNU GPL version 2 |
| Website | 86box |
| Repository | github |
86Box is anIBM PCemulator forWindows,Linux andmacOS based onPCem that specializes in running oldoperating systems andsoftware that are designed forIBM PC compatibles. Originally forked from PCem, it later added support for other IBM PC compatible computers as well.
The main goal of 86Box is to emulate various IBM PC compatible systems/motherboards from 1981 until 1999, which includes almost all IBM PC models (including the IBM PS/1 model 2121 and the IBM PS/2 model 2011) and supports IBM PC compatible systems/motherboards.
86Box is capable of emulatingIntel processors (and its respective clones, includingAdvanced Micro Devices,IDT andCyrix) fromIntel 8088 through thePentiumTillamook MMX/Mobile MMX processors andPentium Pro/Pentium II processors from 1997 until 1999.[1] A recompiler is mandatory for P5 Pentium and Cyrix processors and optional for i486 processors andIDT WinChip processors.
86Box can emulate different graphic modes, this includestext mode,Hercules,CGA (including some composite modes and the 160 × 100 × 16 tweaked modes),Tandy,EGA,VGA (includingMode X and other tweaks),VESA, as well as various video APIs such as DirectX and 3Dfx's Glide. 86Box can also emulate various video cards such as the ATI Mach64 GX and the S3 Trio32/64/Virge series.Voodoo cards are also emulated with support for Voodoo 1/2/3 and various optimizations. A separate recompiler has been added for Voodoo emulation, making it faster to emulate the Voodoo graphics card.
86Box can emulate some sound cards, such as theAdLib,Sound Blaster (including theGame Blaster),Sound Blaster Pro,Sound Blaster 16,Sound Blaster AWE32,Gravis UltraSound, Innovation SSI-2001, Aztech Sound Galaxy Pro 16,Windows Sound System,Ensoniq AudioPCI 64V/ES1371, andSound Blaster PCI 128.
86Box also emulates some SCSI cards, such as SCSI cards fromBusLogic andSymbios Logic.
Similar toVirtual PC,Bochs andQEMU, 86Box supports almost all versions ofMicrosoft Windows untilWindows 7 (including Service Pack 1);MS-DOS,FreeDOS andCP/M-86 are also supported. Earlier versions ofOS/2 requires the hard drive to be formatted prior to installation, while OS/2 Warp 3 until Warp 4.5 requires an unaccelerated video card to run. Other operating systems are also supported on 86Box, such as versions ofLinux that support the Pentium processor,BSD derivatives (e.g.FreeBSD), andBeOS 5, which only works on the Award SiS 497 motherboard.
Initially exclusive to Windows, it was ported to Linux in version 3.2[2][3] and macOS in version 3.4.[4]
For easier handling of multiple virtual machines at the same time and the change of its parameters, it is recommended to use 86Box with a GUI manager application. Some of them are 86Box Manager, 86Box Manager Lite and WinBox for 86Box, all available as free software, too. Since version 5.0 86Box includes a built-in VM Manager and is enabled by default.
| PCem | |
|---|---|
 Screenshot of PCem running FreeDOS 1.0 | |
| Developer | Michael Manley (including contributors) |
| Initial release | 15 August 2007; 18 years ago (2007-08-15) |
| Stable release | 17 / 1 December 2020; 5 years ago (2020-12-01) |
| Written in | C,C++ |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows,Linux |
| Type | Virtual machine,emulator |
| License | GNU GPL version 2 |
| Website | pcem-emulator |
| Repository | github |
86Box began as afork ofPCem, another open-source IBM PC emulator.[5] PCem was originally developed by Sarah Walker from 2007 until her retirement from the project in 2021, at which point she named Michael Manley as the new project maintainer.[1] Like 86Box, PCem allows users to emulate PC compatibles across a range ofx86 processors—from theIntel 8088 to thePentium II—as well as the ability to emulatesound cards (such as theSound Blaster 16) andGPUs (including an extremely small number of early3D accelerators: the S3 ViRGE/325, the S3 ViRGE/DX, the 3DFX Voodoo, and the 3DFX Voodoo2,[6] but no ATI, Nvidia, Matrox, PowerVR, or Rendition chipsets). This versatility allows older PC software with complex hardware requirements to run accurately, in terms of clock speed and multimedia performance, on modern hardware. A benefit of 86Box over mainstreamhosted hypervisors such asVirtualBox is the ability to run customBIOS ROMs[citation needed]. This allows users to closely emulate specific PC compatibles, such as those byCompaq andAsus, among others.[7]
PCem has been used by archivists in academic settings to emulate older software for the purposes of displaying historical digital art.[8] Additionally, both PCem and 86Box have been used byMicrosoft to test their archival source code for successful compilation.[9]